How to run a long hill during a race? (Read 833 times)

What marathon?

run it slowly. Try to keep your EFFORT the same as your effort for the rest of the race. For a hill that steep that may mean a significant drop in pace. You do not want to burn out near the beginning of a marathon. Would you run a 5K pace for an early K on a flat marathon? Fear of losing time on uphills is what has killed me in past races, now that I am learning to accept slower paces on uphills, my improved finishes are more than enough to make up for it. As a side note I am psyched that the group that paces PDX has a pace band generator that takes terrain into account. Not that PDX has much terrain, but its still psychologically cool. I do better when I approach a mile expecting to be slower.

Can anyone give me some advice on what would be the best way to run a long hill (approx. 1km long with a 6% grade) during a marathon. The hill is about 5km into the Marathon. Is it best to run it at a steady pace, slowly or try to run it hard. I am thinking about just running up it slowly, so that I would avoid too much lactate acid buildup so early into the race. I have practiced running up to 8 repeats on a similar hill. I felt the acid builup had cleared by the time I got back to the bottom. So maybe it is best to just race up it and get it over with. Any advice would be appreciated.

If you can do 8 repeats on that (sounds like you're doing them at LT or above), then running it at constant effort (slower pace, but constant breathing, maybe a little elevated breathing, depending upon your conditioning) might be a good strategy. Maybe practice running up the hill at race effort then continuing on at race effort. If you lose speed on the downs or flats because you spent too much on the ups, then slow the up part farther until you have a balance that works for you. Remember gravity is your friend on the downs, and if you burn too much energy fighting it on the ups, you won't get that free gift of speed on the downs. You'll pay a price on the flats and downs and ultimately in your finish time. Were you jogging the downs or running at race pace / effort? The real issue is energy management, not about using lactate as much as it is going too hard and burning into your glycogen stores too early in the race. If the hill were longer or steeper or the race longer, then a run/walk strategy might be useful. In my own training, as I get closer to race day (longer trail races), I practice a couple different strategies on those in-between hills (not mountains, but ones I can't see over) to see how much I lose by walking vs the energy cost of running.

Yeah that was my gut feeling, the program I'm following had me run long hills at 5 to 10k pace, ha, ha, ha...lets just say I ran them as fast as I could and after the secon one none of my repeats were even Marathon pace

I was writing while you were posting. That changes a little of the details in what I posted. I assumed you were successfully running them all at the same effort / pace at or above LT, since you had commented about lactate clearing. But the bottom line of what I posted is still relevant. Find the effort that you can handle the hill and continue running at that same effort. Try running it at marathon race effort and see how you can handle the flats and downs after that. And if you're doing repeats, do them at an effort / pace that you can maintain for all of them. I'm assuming your race has downhills, although maybe not symmetrical. Be sure to train the downs also, esp. if the downs are early in the race. Training harder than race pace / effort is fine for conditioning, but as you get closer to race day, start dialing in on a specific feeling of how to do the hill. ("race simulation", if you will)

Backstreach -- this is your first 'official' marathon (not including your excellent training run)....run it slowly and finish up feeling good.... Then ask us this question again next year when you are try to beat this years time......Save yourself for the next 24 miles..........by easing your way over the hill....because if you runn at your normal marathon speed and not your training run speed you will need the extra energy at about mile 23 and on.....

The glycogen used ... may be a problem.

Given your other thread, I am surprised to see this. Go up that hill EASY. (Ennay, PDX doesn't have much terrain but it DOES have the bridge hill and another long-but-not-steep one after that)

Train hard with hills. Race easy up hills. Race down hills fast and relaxed.

You certainly have run enough to know Obsessor, thanks.